DESPITE suffering a broken jaw at the beginning of Round 11 and not returning until Round 18, St Mary\u2019s midfielder Harry Benson now has a second Mathieson Medal around his neck.<\/p>\n
Benson needed just 11 games in the Geelong Football League (GFL) seniors to accumulate 25 votes, averaging more than two votes per game to edge out Leopold\u2019s Marcus Thompson and Nicholas Dixon of North Shore by two votes.<\/p>\n
In an element of controversy, Benson was defeated in the vote count by Colac star Darcy Lang (26), but due to a one-week suspension for striking back in Round 6 against St Albans, Lang was deemed ineligible to accept the medal.<\/p>\n
Benson polled in all eight opening games of the season accumulating 22 votes by Round 9, six of which were best-on-grounds.<\/p>\n
The Saints midfielder failed to poll in Rounds 9 and 10, before a head clash with Newtown & Chilwell skipper Matt McMahon sidelined Benson until St Mary’s Round 18 clash against Grovedale.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly, Benson would rack up one final best-on-ground against Joeys in the delayed Round 16 fixture to take his vote count to 25, leapfrogging both Leopold favourite Thompson (23) and North Shore\u2019s Dixon (23) in the process.<\/p>\n
Geelong West\u2019s Baxter Mensch tallied 21 votes to finish fifth.<\/p>\n
The top-10 vote-getters in the Geelong Football League:<\/p>\n
1 Darcy Lang (Colac) \u2013 26 votes (ineligible)
\n2 Harry Benson (St Mary\u2019s) \u2013 25 votes
\n3 Marcus Thompson (Leopold) \u2013 23 votes
\n4 Nicholas Dixon (North Shore) \u2013 23 votes
\n5 Baxter Mensch (Geelong West) \u2013 21 votes
\n6 Lachlan Patten (Bell Park) \u2013 19 votes
\n7 Jack Blood (St Mary\u2019s) \u2013 15 votes
\n8 Matthew McMahon (Newtown & Chilwell) \u2013 15 votes (ineligible)
\n9 Tylar Watts (Geelong West) \u2013 15 votes
\n10 Brody Mahoney (Colac), Jai Thomson (Leopold) and James Gow (St Joseph\u2019s) \u2013 14 votes<\/p>\n
Geelong Football League Team of the Year led by St Mary’s co-coaches Travis Robertson and Glenn Keast:<\/p>\n